The Fabric of Inquiry

My fascination with textiles began in 2001 on my first solo trip to Selçuk, Turkey, where I spent days learning about the language of kilims before choosing two to bring home. Over the next decade, that aesthetic love evolved into a deeper academic inquiry. My thesis research—later published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage Management—interrogated the tension between cultural protection and economic development. I wanted to understand what it means when policy calls to protect & revitalize culture - but also to commodify it for tourism and export markets.

Today, my documentary work is an extension of that question. From the tea country of rural Sri Lanka and the stateless hill tribes of Northern Thailand, the weaving collectives of Lombok, the streets of Bruges, to rural Chile and my neighbors in the Tsartlip First Nation, I seek out artisans at work. I advocate for an ethical, direct approach—bypassing the traditional "middleman" of both the market and the lens. These images are a record of cultural sovereignty, documenting the intelligence and resilience held within the hands of the weaver.